Adventures in Argentina – Part One

This week I’m in Buenos Aires, Argentina – even farther south than Florida or Texas, but I think more people here speak English.  Getting here took a lot of airplane time and here are a few things I’ve learned or that happened during my adventure so far:

• My ability to sleep on 10 hour plan rides is less than my ability to do pretty much anything else.
• I’ve now seen Invictus twice – and I’ve learned that I’ll probably never be a world-class rugby player (a shock to all of you, I know), but I can quote most of the movie.
• On the flight from Seattle to Atlanta they had free movies since the credit card thing wasn’t working.  This was very exciting except for the older lady next to me who got so frustrated with the control for the movie thing that she gave up.  I offered to help, but she said it just wasn’t worth it.  I gave her Orbitz Maui Melon gum instead and this seemed to make her incrementally happier.
• The lady on the other side of me watched The Blind Side on her iPod, but could’ve watched it for free on the “big-ish” screen in front of her for free.  Maybe I’m just being a guy but big screen is ALWAYS better than small screen.
• If you work in Customs you have to look a little mean and indifferent.
• My Spanish is still semi-ok, at least I could carry on an hour and half conversation with the driver who took me to the hotel.  He gave me a huge talking-tour of the city and an in-depth, non-bias (I’m sure!) explanation of how screwed up politics are in his country – he seems to think we have it all figured out in the US since we have Obama.  The other point he kept emphasizing  was how 3-4 months after things become popular in the US they arrive in Argentina – stuff like technology, fashion, etc.  This clearly means that Justin Bieber is only days away from taking over down here.  As a parting comment I told him to let me know the next time he was in Seattle – he laughed hard at that one.
• The power plugs here are different – forgot about that.
• The first shower I took here was actually kinda scary.  There were SIX nozzles all in front of me along with the shower head above me.  Upon turning on the shower I was pummeled with ice-cold water from all of these different sources.  Then it warmed up a bit and I was fine, but wow – I think people here are somehow cleaner because that’s a lot of water power.
• Driving here is more like walking through the Walmart on the day after Thanksgiving.  You’ll survive it, but there will be bumps/bruises and you have to be really self-centered brave to go more than 10 feet or so.

The thing I’m most impressed with are the people – they are “fall all over yourself” nice.  Yesterday I was standing in a LONG line at a fast-food place for lunch.  The co-worker I was with in the line is due to have a baby in a few weeks.  One of the crazy-busy fast food workers spotted my pregnant friend, ran up to us, and dragged us to the front of the line to order in front of like 50 other people.  AND THIS IS NORMAL.  So classy.  The moral of the story – the next time you’re in Argentina – bring your pregnant friends.